PS Plus: ICO & GTA: Liberty City Stories Free for Members

I hope you’re ready to get hit right in the feels, because ICO joins the PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection tomorrow. The classic title has been an industry favorite ever since its release, so if you haven’t had a chance to play it, you can finally learn what all the fuss was about.

One of fall’s biggest games – Grand Theft Auto V – is hitting store shelves and the PlayStation Store tomorrow, but you might need something to satisfy your GTA cravings when you aren’t at home. Thankfully, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is also free for PS Plus members this week, so you can play a little GTA no matter where you are.

These PS Plus benefits will be available after the PlayStation Store updates tomorrow, 9/17.

Instant Game Collection

A young boy is locked away deep in a castle after horns started growing out of his head. After breaking free from his confines, he rescues a mysterious girl from her cage. Together they must escape the dangers of the castle and fend off the shadow creatures haunting their every move.

There are a million stories in Liberty City. This one changes everything. Once a trusted wise guy in the Leone crime family, Toni Cipriani was forced into hiding after killing a made man. Now he’s back and it’s time for things to be put right.

Discounts

Welcome to Hong Kong, a vibrant city whose exotic locations hide one of the most powerful and dangerous criminal organizations in the world: the Triads. You play Wei Shen, an undercover cop trying to take down the Triads from the inside. Included in this Digital Edition are three premium DLC packs: The Retro Triad Pack, The Red Envelope Pack, The Street Racer Pack.

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men follows the violent and chaotic journey of two men – a flawed mercenary and a medicated psychopath and their brutal attitude towards right and wrong. This volatile partnership combined with innovative technologies allow for an unparalleled gaming experience. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men will immerse players into an emotionally intense crime drama with unflinching action.

What would you not do for love? For acceptance? When would you give-up? For Kane & Lynch, there is no limit. When there are no options, when the situation is broken beyond repair, they’ll never give-up. Ground-breaking art direction, relentless action gameplay and innovative multiplayer redefine the action shooter experience and make Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days a standout shooter of 2010.

Real Boxing is a stunning boxing simulation game powered by Unreal Engine 3. Journey from amateur to pro in one of the most comprehensive handheld sporting games ever created. Each boxer is designed from the laces up to be as realistic as possible. Real-time deformation technology portrays every bone-crunching punch and jaw-shattering uppercut in stunning definition – the fight is on!

Tikiman the Forest Defender is in trouble. Hordes of monsters are sweeping through his realm, hoping to chow down on his offspring – and it’s up to you to defend them. By placing weapon towers at strategic points around the landscape, you can destroy the invaders and save the little ones. Collect treasure along the way to build up your arsenal and pay for new towers – countless waves of monsters are out to get the babies, so you need to be prepared to battle!

We’ll be back next week with more details on the game arriving to the Instant Game Collection as well as any other benefits we can share.

If you’ve got feedback on today’s Plus update make sure you leave a comment below. If you want to engage with some like-minded people, head over to the PlayStation Community Forums to discuss all things PlayStation, including this update. You’ll also find other topics you can contribute your thoughts to, or start one for yourself.

you really screwed us up, SCEA. Do you expect us to download 18GB for GTAV knowing how sh_t PSN speeds are. Seriously, google PSN slow and check the first suggestion, in case you don’t know.
This is the last time that i pre-order a digital game. Day One my a$$! I’m gonna start buying and selling used games from now on, so Sony won’t get a penny from me. F.U. Sony

This was a decent month for Plus but the discounts have not been great. Hopefully we get more discounts and sales next month. Two very good free games this week though!

Anyway, are there any chance we could see any of the following games hit Plus next next month or in te upcoing months: Mass Effect 3, Okami, Sly Cooper Thieves in Time (cross buy), NFS Most Wanted, or Tomb Raider as a main ps3 full title or possibly Unfinished Swan or Plants vs Zombies as psn games? Any chance any of them will be coming up soon? Not asking for which ones if any, just curious if any of them are possibly planned. Thanks.

Nice update guys!! I know you get allot of angry people, but some of us do enjoy the games we get. Really stoked about Ico, just wish some of these psp games had trophie support. Any chance we will ever see the three games for vita( Uncharted, Wipeout and gravity rush) change out for three other games? Loved all three but it would be nice for a switch out already.

Can we get someone to address all of us unhappy customers regarding the GTA V pre-load availability in NA?

We’ve been told yes, then no, then yes, then no, and given conflicting times of its availability in between. Many of us have already paid you our money yet we can’t seem to get a firm and final answer on pre-loading GTA V.

It’s going to be a big download and we want as much time as possible before the game releases to begin downloading so we can play as close to release as possible.

Many of us have repeatedly asked and been ignored and we’re not happy. That this blog – as well as Rockstar – would simply ignore us is unacceptable. We are paying customers and we are being mistreated. We don’t want a canned PR response, we don’t want an empty apology, we want answers and explanations. Why is that so hard on a blog that was founded to communicate with the fans (lol).

Again – when can we being pre-loading Grand Theft Auto V? If we can’t pre-load it, why are you choosing to make us all download the game at the same time which will take longer and increase the odds of a problem while downloading?

From our end, SCEA has never announced anything regarding any pre-loading functionality. This is functionality that has been used at rare times in EU, however there are a number of factors that we need to consider before using it.

The pre-ORDER functionality on the PS Store works the same as it always has. You guys know that GTA V is far from the first title we’ve ever had on pre-order, but unfortunately there was some mis-information out there that stated we can set up pre-loading. We can not at this time.

I do apologize for seeing the misinformation out there which seems to have started just last Friday.The internet can be a funny place and mis-information can spread like wildfire, but I’m afraid that any element of pre-loading as a reason to pre-order has never been pointed to by SCEA, as cool as it would be.

Guys, the game will drop at midnight tonight, and yes it will take a bit o ‘ time to download; but that’s par for the course in the digital space ^__^. You’re going to have a great game in your hands soon, so look forward to the good times that await!

thanks sony great update this week.
also please dont update and add every game at the start of the month (still tell us about them of course).
it gives me something new to look forward to at the start of each week.

also @4
it must be your internet. i can download a 17gb game in less than an hour. so i have no idea why you are having that problem.

@carlpain Excellent point. If someone wanted to quit PS Plus in October, but wanted to keep Sleeping Dogs, they aren’t allowed to buy it now at the discounted price. That’s terribly lame.

@fede01_8 You’re not making any sense. You bought it knowing full well your DL speeds are slow from PSN, and now you’re complaining about it, without even having tried to DL it yet? Please stop the B.S.; we know you’re full of it. Personally, I can usually download 18GB from PSN in an hour or two, no problem. I expect it might take longer than normal this week … but I can’t spend any time on it until Friday night anyway. :(

I am holding off on purchasing Need For Speed: Most Wanted, because I’ve watched you deeply discount games, then the following month, you give them away for free with a paid subscription to PS+.

You are torpedoing your own sales, here.

This week’s content is better than most of the previous updates, but just barely. A GTA title is definitely a lot better than yet another ancient PSP fighting game, but, again, you are giving us an 8-year-old game that came out the same year as the PSP itself did.

If I didn’t own a PS3, paying for a PS+ subscription would be my very worst investment in gaming, ever.

@18
i believe they gave us the psp/vita game because most people would be distracted by GTA5 on consoles, and if they have to leave they can continue to play portable. just a thought. dont know why that may anger you.

I don’t understand all the hate sometimes on the blog, its usually over things like “its not the game i wanted this week! why cant we have assassin’s creed?!” etc.

It’s true that GTA V is a highly anticipated title for a lot of gamers this month. And for me, personally, portable gaming is a great way to get my fix when life gets busy. As for the “hate” you mention, it’s okay for people to express what they want out of Plus. Some people are just super passionate about their games, and enjoy being able to post a comment sharing their passion on the PlayStation.Blog. and sometimes that passion come off a little aggressive. =D

Also, I agree with Shinra_Soldier7 regarding discounts. I would have liked to see more variety in sales, especially when it comes to DLC. Perhaps when giving out a game for free or discounting it, you guys could look into discounting the DLC as well (like with Aliens: CM last week)?

I don’t understand the desperation of playing a game the first second is out. Of course you’ll have problems with GTA V. Remember this: it is Sony. Same guys who always have many problems with their store. Same happened with the demo (yes, demo!) of TLOU.

Ico is a fantastic game and a great addition to the PS Plus IGC! I haven’t played Liberty City Stories but one thing’s for sure: it’s on IGC just in time to hype people for GTA V! GREAT UPDATE! I can’t wait to download both!

Yeah, if folks haven’t played ICO, they really should take this opportunity and pick it up. Even if they have their eyes on GTA V all month, I recommend grabbing this ttile and keeping it in their personal queue till they get the chance to fire it up.

Hey I just noticed something u can get all these great games for under 25 dollars that’s a really great deal for all 3 games for being a ps plus and what we are getting very awesome I can’t wait to get my gta5 and play it online.
Does any1 know when we can play online? Just asking thanks!

Ugh…..I own Agarest Zero and 2 (picking up 1 when it hits Steam later this year), but it really would’ve been nice to see those sales here too (although that would be up to Aksys, not Ghostlight), if not free. Same goes for Tekken Tag 2, which has been on sale a few times in EU, but nay in NA.

But think about it – we’ve had a Japanese Vita sale that, while it wasn’t enough, shows that SCEA does care (somewhat) about the Japanese games released here. Speaking of which, I saw an image on Kotaku AU that had a PS Vita at TGS, with a certain character on display…guess who? Neptune. NEPTUNE.

Also, ATLUS slashes prices on its games on occasion. Hell, I picked up 3 of their JRPGs (Yggdra Union, Hexyz Force, Growlanser….seriously, you all should check out Growlanser!) for about $15 a while back, and it would’ve totaled to $50+ if it wasn’t on sale.

As for GTA5, well…..thanks for trying to kill off the excitement I had for the game (even though I won’t be picking it up till the end of the month).

To all complaining about download speed of PSN. A lot op people don’t have an issue at all, infact my speeds are sometimes even faster than my PC. Take note of your router settings. It is not the PSN if only ‘some’ people have these issues.

I got a question. We got 31 games in the IGC this year so far. I saw a video on PlayStation access saying we are supposed to get a minimum of 45 games a year. By my calculation, there are still 14 games to go on the PS3 (Or 4.666 games a month) till the end of the year. Is that right?

Where are the RPG’s!!!??? I look over this list of almost TWENTY GAMES, and not one RPG in the collection. Please try harder to include RPG’s in the IGC, as that’s what the polls have stated is most desired here, and yet there is none in that IGC image.